1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a granulator for finely granulating material handled in various industries such as food, chemical and medical industries, and more particularly, to a granulator for finely granulating material into lactescent, dispersed or crushed state particles having uniform (or homogeneous) particle diameters of micron or smaller, thereby obtain stable particle size distribution.
2. Description of The Related Art
As a conventional granulator of material, an APV galling homogenizer investigated by inventer uses a principle shown in FIG. 1 (not prior art). That is, in FIG. 1, a valve 2 is opposed to a valve seat 1 while leaving a slight gap therebetween. Raw material sent under a high pressure is ejected from the gap to collide against an inner wall of an impact ring 3, thereby finely granulating and homogenizing material in the raw material, and the obtained material is taken from a body 4. In this conventional granulator, a desired amount of processed material (1 to 40 ton/h) is obtained under a processing pressure of hundreds kgh/cm2 to 1,000 kgf/cm2 using this principle.
However, in the case of this conventional granulator, it is difficult to adjust the fine gap for allowing the raw material to eject for obtaining a desired amount of processed material (per time). For this reason, the gap, which is greater in some degree, must be used. Therefore, there are problem that the processing pressure applied to the raw material is inevitably increased as high as hundreds kgh/cm2 to 1,000 kgf/cm2, the entire granulator becomes expensive for pressure proofing.
The present invention has been achieved to solve the above problems, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a granulator capable of finely granulating a raw material without increasing a processing pressure applied to the raw material unlike the conventional technique, and capable of obtaining a desired amount of processed material.
To achieve the above object, the present invention has structures as described in aspects below. That is, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a granulator for material comprising a cylindrical body provided with an inlet and an outlet, at least two plates superposed on each other such that the plates are flush with the cylindrical body and assembled into the cylindrical body such that mutual relative positional relation is maintained, wherein each of the plates comprises a large number of through holes and a large number of grooves for connecting the through holes to one another on each of the superposed faces of the plates, and the grooves in one of the plates intersect with the grooves in the other plate on the superposed faces at a large number of positions in a state in which the plates are superposed on each other.
According to the invention of the first aspect, raw material flowed into one through hole of the plate A head-on collides against a flat face of the plate B perpendicularly, and the raw material is diverted into upper, lower, left and right grooves which connect through holes and adjacent through holes to each other. The raw material flowing into one groove from opposite sides head-on collides against other raw material at an intersection of the groove of the plate B and merge with each other, and flow into opposite sides of the groove of the plate B.
In the plate B, raw material flowing into one through hole from the upper, lower, left and right grooves head-on collides with other raw material on the parting face, and the raw material flows into a direction perpendicular to the parting face, and flows through this through hole into a lower pressure side.
The plates A and B include the large number of through holes and grooves, and the grooves of both the plates intersect with each other on the superposed faces. Therefore, head-on collisions occur in many places and thus, even if the processing pressure is equal to or lower than 100 kgf/cm2 (e.g., 70 kgf/cm2), the material in the raw material is granulated, and a desired processing amount of material can be granulated.
According to a second aspect of the invention, in the granulator for material of the first aspect, the large number of through holes are arranged in a lattice-pattern, the through holes of the one plate are located in wall portions of the lattice pattern with respect to the through holes of the other plate, and the large number of grooves intersect with each other at a large number of positions.
With the invention of the second aspect, since the large number of through holes are located at the walls of the lattice pattern, all the raw material flowing into the large number of through holes of the plate A head-on collides in a direction perpendicular to the walls of the plate B, it is possible to reliably achieve the effect of the invention of the first aspect.
According to a third aspect of the invention, in the granulator for material of the first aspect, the large number of through holes provided in the plates are arranged in the same manner or in such a manner that all walls of the lattice pattern on each of the superposed faces are closed with each other in a state in which the plates are superposed on each other.
With the invention of the third aspect, the large number of through holes provided in the plates are arranged in the same manner or in such a manner that all walls of the lattice pattern on each of the superposed faces are closed with each other in a state in which the plates are superposed on each other. Therefore, the large number of grooves intersect with each other at right angles in a large number of locations, and it is possible to reliably achieve the effect of the invention of the first aspect.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the granulator for material of the first aspect, a shape of the cylindrical body is circular.
According to the invention of the fourth aspect, since the shape of the cylindrical body is circular, stagnation of the flow of raw material and dispersion of flow rate caused by the stagnation are reduced to the minimum, and it is possible to reliably achieve the effect of the invention of the first aspect.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a granulating system for material comprising a raw material supplying port for supplying raw material, a high pressure pump for pressurizing the raw material sent from the raw material supplying port, a granulator for granulating the raw material sent from the high pressure pump; and a granulated product receiver for taking out granulated product which was finely granulated by the granulator, wherein the granulator comprises a cylindrical body provided with an inlet and an outlet, at least two plates superposed on each other such that the plates are flush with the cylindrical body and assembled into the cylindrical body such that mutual relative positional relation is maintained, wherein each of the plates comprises a large number of through holes and a large number of grooves for connecting the through holes to one another on each of the superposed faces of the plates, and the grooves in one of the plates intersect with the grooves in the other plate on the superposed faces at a large number of positions in a state in which the plates are superposed on each other.
Therefore, according to the present invention, when the material is finely granulated, the processing pressure can be reduced while keeping the processing ability, and the cost of the entire apparatus can be reduced.